The 88-year-old quiz master who still writes all her own questions
“IT KEEPS my mind working even if the rest of my body won’t bloody follow”, jokes Madge Walters, perched on a bar stool in the Robin Hood pub in Pontcanna, Cardiff. She has a notepad filled with quiz questions – all handwritten and thought up by herself – in one hand, and a brandy in another.
For the 88-year-old, the bar is her stage, and the dozens of quiz-goers who gather eagerly for her weekly questioning are her willing audience. After nearly five decades of testing the people of Cardiff and beyond, it’s still not uncommon to struggle to find a seat at “the Queen of quizzes” soiree.
Hosting quizzes in watering holes for decades – over 25 years in the Robin Hood alone – the former pub landlady is an institution of the city. And despite her tiny frame and quiet, unassuming nature, the stalwart still manages to silence the room with a single but pointed “Ssh”.
Born near Aberystwyth in 1934 – an “Aberystwyth girl” as she likes to think of herself – Madge arrived in South Wales in the late 1960s with her five children in tow. Fleeing an abusive husband, or a “not very nice person” as she politely puts it, she stayed with a godmother in Newport before finding work in Cardiff. She now has nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
“I stayed with her for a fortnight and then came to Cardiff to get a job. I got a job in the Queen’s Hotel as it was then on Westgate Street [now Zero Degrees bar] and I got a place to live and that was me done.”
But Madge was far from “done”. She went on to be the bar manager of some of the city’s best-known pubs and bars including The Conway, The Mochyn Du (as it was once known) and Cardiff Arms Park, where she spent a long time mixing with the greats of Welsh rugby.
“I was there for quite a long time. I loved it there. I was there at the time when The Lions won everything and Wales won everything and I loved it. During the time of Barry John and Gareth Edwards. I enjoyed those days. I don’t think there’s a better job in the world for meeting people.”
But while she started to be known in the pub scene in the city, it is her quizzes – now famous for their winning combination of their simplicity and Madge’s presence at the microphone – that have really made her a well-known face.
The format is made up of a first round of 20 general knowledge questions, all thought up by Madge, and a second optional bingo quiz round which is generated online.
And while she might be in her eighth decade, she has no plans to slow down.
Starting at 8pm every Thursday in the lounge of the Robin Hood, the quiz runs all year round, even Christmas. “It’s every week unless it falls on Christmas Eve,” says Madge. “Even if only three teams come, you have to do the quiz because they have bothered to turn up, that’s how I look at it.”
And despite running quizzes for nearly 50 years, Madge still isn’t short of questions to ask, dedicating two afternoons a week to compiling her list. “I started in the Conway in the
‘70s when I was running the pub for the managers there and Tuesday night was a quiet night and they said, ‘What shall we do?’. I suggested karaoke but they didn’t like that so I suggested a quiz and they said, ‘All right, you do it then’,” she explained.
“So it’s nearly 50 years since I have been doing the quizzes. “It’s got to be around 25 years since I’ve been doing them here [the Robin Hood]. I went all over the place at one time, I used to go as far as Peterston-super-Ely and over that way doing quizzes. I’ve been here for quite a long time.
“I write the first lot myself. It takes me probably two afternoons a week. I used to do 100 questions a week, you see, now it’s much less at 20, that’s enough! I’ve got plenty of books and reference books so if I come across something in the paper I find it and reference it and think of a question. I enjoy it because I’m learning myself.”
And despite being almost part of the furniture at the Robin Hood for decades, the weekly quizzes are often packed, with punters arriving over an hour early to bag the best seat in the house. And arguably, while the quiz – primarily general knowledge – suits everyone – it is Madge’s star quality appeal that draws in the crowds.
Immaculately presented – “I wouldn’t dream of going out without make-up on” – drinking brandy out of her personal crystal glass, even the most unruly of teams wouldn’t mess with Madge, with the crowds only getting bigger as the years go on.
“I’m not an easy quizmaster but they keep coming back,” she jokes. “Over the years you learn to read what is going on and think you have to put a stop to this or it will take over.
“In the beginning it would, and I was a bit nervous and I didn’t know how to handle people but over years you get the knack of it and say, ‘Oi, now down to business. I want some hush when I’m asking the questions’.
“There’s one team who come in even now. There was one member who we had to ban for a month and even so he still comes back, so that’s something.
“I’m surprised at how many young people have started coming. It started off and it was lots of older people but suddenly over the last 12 months particularly we have had a lot of young people coming in. Which is great and it has made me have to rethink my questions.
“Instead of asking about history and dates like some of the older ones might know, I’ve had to rethink it to history that is closer to what they may have heard when they were a child.”
And while Madge has no plans to stop the quiz, after battling some illnesses – most recently shingles – she has had to recruit a band of helpers who will step in once in a while. But even so, it’s clear that Madge is the real draw for people.
“One of the boys who helps me now and again tried to change the format one night and everyone went, ‘No, no, no’.
“He said, ‘I thought it would be a change’ and I said, ‘You don’t change something that’s working’. And it’s been working for years. He offered to help one day and said, ‘If you ever need a break’ and I thought, ‘I’ll think about that’ and then I was ill and so I phoned him up.
“There’s three I can call on now to help out sometimes. He said, ‘Doing the quiz for three weeks was hard, that’s why you’re the queen of the quizzes’. People have said, ‘Why don’t you write a book?’ but there would be too much to put in there and I don’t have time.
“Well, there’s going to come a time when I’ve got to give up. I think these days it is getting quite hard, especially in winter. It is hard coming out. But it is lovely. I love coming down here and doing the quizzes. I keep on learning myself. Sometimes I’ll see a question and think, ‘Oh I haven’t seen that before’.
“I do a lot of crosswords, the harder the better. It keeps my mind working even if the rest of my body won’t bloody follow. There’s no hardship for me. There have been times where I’ve thought, ‘Oh God, I don’t want to do it this week’. But you do.”
And while it’s undeniable that Madge is a favourite among the people of Cardiff – Canton and Pontcanna especially – she’s also known among some famous faces, with Rhod Gilbert visiting a few times, as well as the ultimate quizzer himself, Mark Labbett or The Beast from ITV’s The Chase.
And Madge has a fair few anecdotes of his visits. Explaining, she said: “He came a few times. I like him. It was Christmas time and there were two people behind the bar and they bought a raffle ticket. And the rule of the raffle is that if your ticket is pulled you can ask anyone on your team to do the question for you.
“But they were behind the bar and they won their ticket for £200 and Mark offered to do it for them – knowing he would – and one team refused to allow it because he wasn’t on their team.
“I was really furious about it and Mark said, ‘Never mind, there’s more than one way to skin a cow’. A few weeks later he was back and sat with their team and they picked him to come up and do a question and he answered the three questions and he put one wrong and I knew he knew it and he turned to me and said, ‘There you are’.
“And I thought, ‘What a lovely thing to do. He’s a bit too harsh on The
Chase for me, I know it’s part of the persona but I think, ‘Please be nice’.”
After decades in the pub Madge has come to know most of the regulars but it is a stranger who walked in off the street and won the quiz which has stuck in her memory.
“I didn’t know his name, he came in off the street and was playing on his own and he actually got every one right. He hasn’t been back since. A complete mystery. I still don’t know who he was or where he came from.”
For Madge, part of the appeal of doing the quiz is the Robin Hood itself and its owner Paul. On the bottom of Severn Grove in Pontcanna, the pub is a hidden gem for those in the know – and for Madge, who lives nearby, it is her “second home”.
“It’s a good pub,” she said. “Paul has done his best to make it into a community pub. It has been my local for 25 years, I suppose. I started the quiz here even before Paul came.”
“Pubs have changed. Most pubs now have gone on to concentrating on food and they don’t cater for people coming in just having a chat and a drink. You don’t see many community pubs any more.
“I have a party here every year now. That’s only because I had my 80th and they said, ‘You’ve got to have one every year now just in case it’s your last one’ and, well, I agreed. It wouldn’t be anywhere else. To me it’s such a lovely place. He’s one of the best hosts I’ve come across and I’ve worked with quite a lot. He’s brilliant.”
And while most people would be looking at slowing down by 88, the same can’t be said for Madge. “I’ve enjoyed every moment of it all. You do get a quiet week now and again and you get used to that. I will keep going until I can’t keep going. Eventually I am going to have to say ‘enough’ and I don’t know when that will be.” Finally coming around to the idea that it is in fact Madge who runs the show and is the star appeal, she says sheepishly: “I seem to have got a character of some kind but I don’t know why. People do say, ‘We come to your quiz, Madge’. I think I keep it simple – 20 questions on general knowledge and you may know it, you may not. That’s that’.’
I’m surprised at how many young people have started coming. It started off and it was lots of older people but suddenly over the last 12 months particularly we have had a lot of young people coming in. Which is great and it has made me have to rethink my questions. Instead of asking about history and dates like some of the older ones might know, I’ve had to rethink it to history that is closer to what they may have heard when they were a child Quizmaster Madge Walters